(It actually poured, less than 60 minutes after that!…)
It’s 08.15 I’m on the terrace at the chalet with a blanket on my knees. It’s only 15 degrees celsius. I’m having my coffee and reading on this book called weyward by Emilia Hart, which is really interesting. I notice there’s even an audio book of that!…
Anyway, this morning I left some apples for the birds behind the chalet. I’ve got all these apples from last year which are still to make compote.
The weather forecast isn’t very positive. There are very large clouds, it’s quite spectacular. Actually, it would be ideal to have a walk by this weather. Today is the day when I should go and train… Two days ago I went for a very large tour on my own for six hours. I was completely exhausted – six or seven hours, with some breaks, of course.
There are more birds today, even a magpie. They don’t sing anymore as at the beginning of the season… And for the rest, yes, the large grass leaves have become dry at some places. So the whole pasture is becoming a bit dry. We’re not allowed to make fires anymore from yesterday on. So there is the first of August celebration, that is the National Day coming soon, but we won’t be allowed to shoot fireworks or make fires bonfires.
There was that tradition to make a bonfire for the first of August, a very large fire, and people from the different chalets would collect. – Back then, when there weren’t fireworks yet, this was the real, actual tradition. So it won’t take place this year, except if there are large amounts of rain which doesn’t seem to be the case – At least, they haven’t forecast it… Tomorrow’s going to be beautiful weather as well.
I did a lot of work on Arpitan, that is on a comic strip in Arpitan yesterday. I’m actually revising the translation I had already made. It is a whole story about a girl who decides to keep cows and to train them to fight – which they do naturally…
This revision of the translation is fun doing. It takes a lot of time, because I’m checking the translations with a dictionary online. I’m checking the orthography mainly with Apertium. This system can translate from French to Francoprovençal or Arpitan, or the other way round. So if I misspell a word, it doesn’t translate it into French. I then have the opportunity to revise my orthography.
It’s the end of my third week of holiday today. Yes, it’s amazing how I have got used to being on holiday. I’ve had more dreams of school lately. More than I would have thought. They weren’t pleasant dreams, but not real nightmares either, I mean they were not really awful… But all the same, it is worrying when you have had quite a long break and these dreams of school are like an obcession…
There are many changes in my timetable next schoolyear, and in the type of classes I’m going to teach next year. So it’s a new start, really… We will get used to that eventually, in the next few years. But there is a lot of changes at once, at least three different new programmes. Sometimes it’s just a matter of book, but sometimes it’s a matter of structuring the teaching differently and quite freely. Of course this can be viewed as an opportunity, but it is also a responsibility and more work… All the more so if you’re conscientious and don’t want to do things too lightly. I never want to be judged negatively. I want to do something worthwhile, especially with the type of students who are prone to to be unhappy and to claim their rights and the like… You have to be very clear so that they don’t have the opportunity to bother you too much.
Some bees are coming on these purple flowers (willowherbs). They’re beautiful flowers. It’s always a pleasure to see them. My darling prunes the bush so that there aren’t too many stems; there are approximately 15… It’s an invasive kind…
I wish you a very happy day! Catch you on the rebound!